145;Cong will unite parties, head secular coalition146;

With trends showing a hung Lok Sabha, the Congress today adopted evasive maneouvers on the question of leadership of its secular coalition b...

With trends showing a hung Lok Sabha, the Congress today adopted evasive maneouvers on the question of leadership of its secular coalition but stressed that 8216;8216;a Congress-led secular alternative is inevitable.8217;8217; At the AICC strategy committee meeting, it was decided that the Congress would take the political initiative to bring together a party-led secular coalition saying that 8216;8216;only the largest party of the coalition can bring stability.8217;8217;

Senior Congress leaders today were busy keeping in touch with the pre-poll allies like Rashtriya Janta Dal, DMK, Lok Janshakti Party, Nationalist Congress Party and others. The party president Sonia Gandhi, late in the evening, met former prime minister V.P. Singh, after the exit poll results predicted that the NDA would fall short of the majority in Lok Sabha. She also met CPIM spokesperson Sitaram Yechury earlier in the day.

According to Congress estimates, the Left together could corner over 50 seats, becoming a very crucial ally of the party in the secular alliance. The AICC strategy committee, presided over by Manmohan Singh, met for over two hours to 8216;8216;get an overview8217;8217; of elections and concluded that the 8216;8216;NDA would not be in a position to get a majority.8217;8217; A member of the committee, Jairam Ramesh said, 8216;8216;Rajiv Gandhi in 1989 had refused to form the government even when the President asked him to. If the NDA does not get a majority, then Vajpayee should realise it is a mandate against him and he has lost the right to stake claim.8217;8217;

Says a member of the committee Ghulam Nabi Azad, 8216;8216;The NDA has been talking about stability. But the NDA coalition could survive because the largest constituent, the BJP, was leading it. Let Vajpayee leave leadership to any of the allies, and such a coalition would collapse in six months.8217;8217;

8216;8216;If secular political parties are interested in stability of a coalition government for five years, then they should give the reigns in the hands of the largest party of the coalition,8217;8217; he opined, referring to the secular coalition.